Zurich’s Investment Administration & Accounting (Investment Management)

The Business Case

Zurich’s decision to manoeuvre their approach to managing market and reference data came from the realization that this was a good example where scale mattered, and a collaboration with a vendor providing similar services to the industry on cloud could be a better solution than a standalone, on-premise setup.

“The setup at the time was legacy on-premise and required extensive efforts for maintenance, changes and operations, pointing at opportunities to improve standardization and decrease complexity. The team found themselves spending extra time on technical and operations management, facing longer lead times, infrastructural and other challenges,” said Ruchir Verma.

Recognizing the need for a strategic shift, Zurich assessed the sustainability of their current operating model. They realized that the complexity of the operating model was hindering efficiency and burdensome to the team. The turning point came when they decided to focus on what they could do best and find a solution that not only addressed their immediate pain points but also set the stage for future scalability and efficiency.

The Solution

In 2018, Zurich initiated discussions with AIM software (today SimCorp Data Management) to explore a managed service-based solution. The objective was not just to migrate to the cloud but to transform the entire master & market data management process into a service. “Having assessed the type of data that we were working with, it wasn’t confidential or sensitive and the work didn’t provide a competitive edge, so a decision was made to transform the entire data management process, choosing a tech-enabled service with SimCorp. We were not just transferring to the cloud but transferred operations such as data sourcing, cleaning and change management tasks to be managed by SimCorp on one platform,” said Verma.

The phased approach started with moving to the cloud, followed by change management and eventually handing over operational tasks to SimCorp. The transition to SimCorp Data Management Services marked a pivotal shift from managing operations in-house to leveraging a specialized vendor for enhanced scalability, efficiency, and standardization.

The Business Value

The adoption of SimCorp Data Management Services brought substantial business value to Zurich’s Investment Management function. “The first and foremost impact was the simplification of internal teams. Change Management evolved to the point where the team can focus on business requirements and interpreting the output rather than having to deal with the technical implementation of changes and testing, for example. On the operational side, activities such as chasing vendors, managing technical changes, and dealing with non-critical tasks were offloaded to SimCorp, allowing the team to concentrate on high-value tasks.” said Verma. The transition enabled Zurich to redirect team members from manual, low-value activities to strategic initiatives like reporting, analytics, and generating new insights.

The success was evident in the team's motivation to deliver a real competitive advantage with the ability for the organization to focus on activities that genuinely contribute to the business.

“We collaborated with SimCorp on the first iteration of Data Management Services and were able to benefit from the standardization while still catering for our requirements. The managed service has become well-established within our operations, with appropriate governance, and has fostered an outcome-based mindset internally. We also enjoy participating in SimCorp’s wider data management community throughout the year.” said Verma.

Zurich’s journey with SimCorp exemplifies an operating model shift from in-house data management to a comprehensive, scalable, and efficient tech-enabled service. The transformation not only addressed immediate challenges, but also empowered the function to focus on activities that significantly contribute to their core business, and gave them a future proof, scalable data management model.

About Zurich Insurance Group

Zurich is a leading multi-line insurer serving people and businesses in more than 200 countries and territories. Founded 150 years ago, Zurich is transforming insurance. In addition to providing insurance protection, Zurich is increasingly offering prevention services such as those that promote wellbeing and enhance climate resilience.

https://www.zurich.com/

Quick Facts

Company name: Zurich Insurance Group
Headquarters: Zürich, Switzerland
Industry: Insurance
Business operating profit (BOP): USD 6.5 bn (2022)
Established: 1872
Website: https://www.zurich.com/